Patent Grant
7403811
The field of the invention relates to medical devices, and more particularly, to methods for tracking catheters such as those used to conduct ultrasonic imaging.
In the medical arts, catheters are frequently used to diagnose and treat various disorders in a patient, such as clogged or blocked blood vessels. A catheter is introduced into a blood vessel of a patient by, for example, making an incision in the patient over the blood vessel and inserting the catheter into the blood vessel of the patient. A catheter operator such as a physician then maneuvers the catheter through the blood vessels of the patient until the catheter is properly situated to diagnose or treat the disorder. Similar techniques are used to insert catheters into other types of lumens within a patient.
In maneuvering the catheter through the blood vessels or other lumens within the patient, there is a recurrent need to know the location of the catheter within the body space of the patient. Conventional imaging systems create an image of the blood vessel or other lumen which make the lumen appear as a straight tube, and provide no concept of 3-dimensional (“3-D”) spatial relationships. In the patient, however, the lumens curve about, and contain branches that branch off at various angles from the lumen. If the position in three dimensions of the imaging head on the catheter can be determined, then through use of three-dimensional imaging software, the true positions and locations of the curves, twists, and turns, as well as the locations of the branch points, of the lumens can be determined. Knowing the true positions allows a more accurate map of the patient to be created, which yields more effective diagnosis and treatment of the patient. For example, gathering accurate 3-D position data allows for an accurate blood flow map and consequent blood flow monitoring and modeling.
Traditionally, X-ray technology has been used to provide a global roadmap of X-ray visible devices, showing their position within the patient. However, an X-ray image, being a two-dimensional projection, can only provide partial information on the 3-D shape of the catheter path. Furthermore, prolonged exposure to X-rays may be harmful to the patient, and it is therefore desirable to avoid such exposures. Thus there is a need for a tracking system which can easily determine the location of a catheter within a patient, without exposing the patient to harmful side effects, and which can be used with a wide variety of catheters or other imaging medical devices.
To overcome the problems inherent with X-ray tracking of catheters, various technologies have arisen which attempt to gather positional information about the location of a catheter within the patient, without the harmful side-effects of X-ray technology. Among such technologies are tracking systems which gather positional information using electromagnetic, optical, mechanical, acoustic, and/or inertial sensing elements. Many of these technologies require the addition of extra elements to the catheter, to allow it to be tracked within the patient.
Therefore there is a need for an improved method of tracking catheters.
For imaging catheters, the disadvantages of X-ray tracking can be avoided, without needing any additional equipment added on to the catheter, by relying on the data contained in the images collected by the imaging catheter itself to determine the position of the catheter within the body. This improved method can also be used with other forms of catheters, as long as the catheter has some ability to gather data about its immediate surroundings.
In this method, a first image gathered by the imaging catheter is compared to a second image gathered by the imaging catheter, and this comparison is used to compute one or more offset angles between the first and second images. This data is used to determine the relative position of the second image with respect to the first image. By making these determinations for each of a series of images, the orientation of the entire series of images, in three dimensions, can be determined. Since the orientation of an imaging catheter image is determined by the orientation of the imaging element at the tip of the imaging catheter, this method allows the position of the imaging element to be determined. This method also allows an imaging system to create a true or more true three-dimensional representation of the lumen that the catheter is traveling through.
Other systems, methods, features and advantages of the invention will be or will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the accompanying claims.
In order to better appreciate how the above-recited and other advantages and objects of the present inventions are obtained, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof, which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. Moreover, in the figures, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the different views. However, like parts do not always have like reference numerals. Moreover, all illustrations are intended to convey concepts, where relative sizes, shapes and other detailed attributes may be illustrated schematically rather than literally or precisely.
Turning to
Since the lumen is twisting, bending and curving about inside the patient, the lumen axis is constantly changing orientation, and thus the orientation of the images is also constantly changing. Additionally, the catheter operator may elect to alter the orientation of the imaging head within the lumen, for example to take an image of a particular portion of the lumen at a different angle in order to gather additional data about the lumen. To provide an accurate determination of the position of the imaging head 12, and thus provide an accurate map of the lumen, it is useful to determine the relative offset of each image from the image captured just previously. To conserve computing resources and time, it is possible to skip some of the images, and compute the relative offset of an image with some image other than the image captured just previously. This may result in a corresponding decrease in accuracy, but this may be acceptable depending on the particular situations the catheter 10 is being used in.
To simplify the discussion and more clearly explain the method of an embodiment of the invention, the following disclosure of the process of image comparison and position determination will use the example image slices shown in
Each plane 100a-j contains a slice of image data, such as an ultrasound image, or a light based image. The image data contained in each plane 100a-j changes, as the planes progress through the volume box 110. For example, turning to
The planes 100a-j intersect the shapes 120, 130, capturing a slice of image data for each shape 120, 130 at the intersection. The resulting series of planes 100a-j containing the slices 120a-j, 130a-e of the shapes 120, 130 are shown in
As can be seen in
In the example of
In general, the correlation between any two of the planes 100a-j is greatest at the line of intersection 105 along the left side of each plane 100a-j, where all of the planes contain exactly the same image data. Correlation between pairs of planes 100a-j is gradually lost as we progress across the planes 100a-j from left to right. We will use the term “correlation loss” or “loss of correlation” to describe the local difference between the images being compared, which may be computed by a variety of methods. The particular method of computing the difference between images is a design choice for those skilled in the art, and is not critical to the embodiments of the invention disclosed herein. In this example, for ease of explanation, the correlation loss was measured across the planes 100a-j from left to right. The correlation loss may be measured in any direction across the planes 100a-j without affecting the results of the methods discussed herein.
An example considering images taken across two pairs of planes (all intersecting along a common line) demonstrating the behavior of image differences with increasing distance from the common intersecting line is shown in the graph in
Turning to
Calculating the derivative of each fitted exponential function 165, 175 at the origin (0,0), yields the value Aλ for each fitted exponential function 165, 175, which value is a good approximation of the angle of separation, in the direction of the correlation loss comparison, between the two planes 100a-100j being compared. Thus, the derivative of the lower fitted exponential function 165 at the origin is an approximation of the angle of separation between planes 100a and 100b. Similarly, the derivative of the upper fitted exponential function 175 at the origin is an approximation of the angle of separation between planes 100a and 100c.
Turning to
Assume that the reference plane 100a is defined to begin at (0,0,0) in a three-dimensional polar coordinate system (ρ, θ, φ), with the reference plane 100a defined by the two intersecting lines (0,0,0)-(ρ, 0, 0) and (0,0,0)-(ρ, 0, π/2), where ρ represents the width of the image on the reference plane 100a, θ represents the angle of inclination above the reference plane 100a, and φ represents the angle of counterclockwise rotation from the origin line (0,0,0)-(ρ, 0, 0). The position of the plane 100g is defined by the position of the intersecting line 105, represented in polar coordinates as (0,0,0)-(ρ, 0, 0) and line 190, represented in polar coordinates as (0,0,0)-(ρ, θ, 0). The value for ρ is known from the dimensions of the reference plane 100a, and the value for θ is calculated using the correlation comparison of the image data in the plane 100g as compared with the reference plane 100a as discussed above. Therefore, the position of the plane 100g is determined using the information known about the reference plane 100a and the information gathered from the image data correlation comparison
Note that the example presented above limited the correlation comparison to planes 100a-j that only varied from each other in one direction, since all of the planes 100a-j shared the line of intersection 105. This was done for ease of explanation of the principles of operation of the improved method of tracking a catheter using image data, but alternate embodiments of the method can easily calculate the position of other planes which have any arbitrary relationship to a reference plane 100a. For example, turning to
To determine the angle θ1 between the reference plane 100a and the plane 100k, the correlation loss rate in the direction (0,0,0) to (ρ, 0, 0) is computed and approximated to an exponential function as described above. To determine the angle θ2 between the reference plane 100a and the plane 100k, the correlation loss rate in the direction (0,0,0) to (ρ, 0, π/2) is computed and approximated to an exponential function as described above. Note that while the correlation loss began at zero for the example of
Similarly, the position of planes which are parallel to each other in either or both of the (0,0,0) to (ρ, 0, 0) and (0,0,0) to (ρ, 0, π/2) directions can easily be computed using the methods discussed above. For any direction in which a plane is parallel to the reference plane 100a, the rate of correlation loss will be zero, and thus the angle of separation will be zero. If the plane does not intersect the reference plane 100a, then the initial value of the correlation loss function will be non-zero, but rate of correlation loss will remain at that non-zero value, thus indicating a parallel but non intersecting plane, in the direction of the correlation loss measurement.
Thus, the position of any plane may be determined, relative to the position of any arbitrarily selected reference plane, whether the plane intersects the reference plane or not, whether the plane is parallel to the reference plane or not, by comparing the image data contained in the two planes, and computing the rate of correlation loss in each of two directions, or sometimes in one direction, if it is known that the two planes intersect.
Expanding on the principles discussed above, once the position of a first plane is determined relative to a reference plane, then the position of a second plane relative to the first plane can be determined, by using the first plane as the reference plane and performing the position determination again. Thus an arbitrarily long chain of planes, positioned in three-dimensional space, may be constructed using the methods disclosed herein. Where these planes each contain image data gathered from a catheter, as the catheter travels through a lumen in a patient, this chain of planes represents a map of the lumen, in three dimensions.
In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments thereof. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the planes may have any orientation with respect to each other, not merely the orientations described above. The data compared for correlation loss could be any data for which a relative position computation is desired, and not merely the spatial image data described above. For example, images gathered at different points in time could be compared to determine age-triggered correlation losses. Further, the reader is to understand that the specific ordering and combination of process actions described herein is merely illustrative, and the invention can be performed using different or additional process actions, or a different combination or ordering of process actions. Features and processes known to those of ordinary skill in the art of medical devices may similarly be incorporated as desired. Additionally, features may be added or subtracted as desired. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than restrictive sense, and the invention is not to be restricted or limited except in accordance with the following claims and their legal equivalents.
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